FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to the art of training athletes, and more particularly to an apparatus and method for electronically evaluating, under controlled conditions, an athlete's speed, agility, body control, and ability to react to visual stimuli.
One of the major goals in training athletes, especially football players, is to develop speed, coordination, lateral movement, peripheral vision, and the ability to quickly change direction ("cut"). Typically, the forty yard dash is used to measure the speed of running backs, linemen, linebackers, defensive backs, etc. However, the forty yard dash is a flat out, straight ahead sprint which does not test the athlete's reaction time, peripheral vision, lateral movement or ability to cut.
Certain training aids have been developed. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,534,958 and 4,029,315 disclose apparatus for testing a player's passing ability. U.S. Pat. No. 3,096,979 discloses an agility developing device wherein one or more players respond to one or more moving targets. Unfortunately, such devices have very limited application and do not measure nor enhance the player's reaction time and ability to quickly change direction in response to visual stimuli.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,912,259 entitled APPARATUS FOR TIMED EVENTS PERFORMED BY CYCLISTS, issued Oct. 14, 1975 discloses an obstacle course for timing events undertaken by cyclists. The cyclist initially proceeds over an actuator which starts a stopwatch, proceeds around various objects or obstacles and eventually returns such that the entire event can be timed. The obstacles are painted either yellow or orange to indicate that the cyclist should pass to the right or left of the obstacle or marker. This arrangement does not provide, however, any means for redirecting the cyclist in another direction on a real-time basis and therefore does not test or improve his reaction time and ability to quickly respond to visual stimuli.